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There is potentially a lot to be learned from renowned architect Zachary Taylor Davis who designed the original Comiskey and Wrigley. Build where the original Comiskey stood with left field once again facing North, bleachers like Wrigley with flats having a partial view inside the stadium, Palladian arched brick openings, bars and restaurants along 35th street, residential and commercial buildings down 35 street and along Shields, etc. I would even put ivy on the outfield walls since it was Bill Veeck's idea. Lose the V shaped centerfield scoreboard, the circular circus spinners and the firework nonsense. https://chicagology.com/skyscrapers/skyscrapers128/

Jimmy Margalus opined on this point a while back: https://soxmachine.com/2023/07/andrew-vaughn-still-oddly-outside-scope-of-white-sox-trade-talks/

Probably because no team has any interest in this guy but maybe he should be dangled out on the trade market by Getz given his emphasis on speed and defense. Vaughn clogging up the bases with a single or getting tagged out trying to stretch a base hit into a double makes no sense with the new Go-Go Sox. Vaughn has alligator arms at 1B and very little range on defense. He doesn't make sense as a DH because of his splits and again, his lack of speed on the bases. The Cubs among other teams might be interested.

I don't see how going to bars after a night game is what families with children want to do or what thousands of fans from the SW suburbs would want to do given that they could have a 30-45 minute drive home and have probably downed a few during the game. Safety? Public transit in the City is not safe and neither is walking the streets at night. You are better off getting in your car and heading home or towards the suburbs after night games. Gun violence, especially in the City, has changed everything.

I'm not certain that parking garages would work for a variety of reasons. As I tried to explain, there is obviously a different fan experience at Wrigley vs GRF where people are able to drive their cars, park in a safe parking lot adjacent to the park, and tailgate if they choose.. Most fans (from the far SW suburbs, for example), are simply never going to use mass transit to commute to a game for security and other reasons. I am not sure how parking garages would work in a situation where almost everyone arrives and departs around the same time. So parking is a major cost consideration along with the land required for them. Let's see a site plan with this proposed plan including how many parking spaces will be provided and how the ingress/egress to expressways will work. As some have pointed out, GRF is only 2 El stops from Area 78 and there may be other issues with that site. How is moving there justified when all of the infrastructure and parking already exist on 35th Street ? It isn't like that site provides a view of the Lake or Burnham harbor. That, I think would be a different conversation. In my time I have seen so many artistic architectural renderings designed to excite developers, but this is one of the few that I just cannot see as it stands. Too many unanswered questions and a lack of detail in the development plans.

Evidence is not opinion based on limited personal observation. Evidence could be statistics about how many fans drive to games versus how many take mass transit and of course, how many, especially suburban families with children, would refuse to take mass transit through the city for security reasons because of gun violence and other crime. Of course some people will always rely on mass transit but the reality is that any new stadium must have parking that accommodates thousands of automobiles for suburban Sox fans. GRF has that.

Sox fans absolutely value parking greatly since that is the way most of them get to the games and most of them will never, ever board public transportation in Chicago. How does building at the 78 make the most sense ? You haven't even seen a rendering or a site plan that includes parking for thousands of vehicles, access to surrounding streets and expressways. Please, if you have not done so recently, drive by the Area 78 site and let us know what you think. Take a few phone pics from the street and post them here.

Most Sox fans are used to driving to GRF from the suburbs. They will never avail themselves of mass transit for security reasons among other things. Everything considered, maybe building on the site of the original Comiskey makes the most sense. The site is not in a hole, no need for environmental, it has historical significance, parking and infrastructure are already there, and the Sox/ISFA and City already own the land and surrounding parking. Why make things more complicated than they need to be....so people from the SW suburbs can paddle there down the Sanitary canal ? Sometimes the easiest and most cost effective solution is the best one.

The thing that some cub fans do not get is that South Siders like the large parking lots adjacent to the park to meet friends and to tailgate with their own grill, food and beverages. We don't need to jam into bars outside the park before games. Most fans probably choose to head home after long night games. For others there are countless restaurants from Bridgeport to Little Italy to Greektown or out in the suburbs to catch dinner or have a drink later. Wrigley provides a different fan experience which is also fine. They don't have to be the same and they never will be. Enjoy them for what they are.

Perhaps Bubbly Creek Park. for those who have interest in Chicago history or were forced to read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" in high school. But yea, water taxis.

My words have been parsed by an antagonist. There are reasons I believe that Area 78 will not be pursued for a new baseball stadium - numerous failed projects there, the time and costs that would be involved to address major impediments to construction, special infrastructure requirements like a sea wall, storm and sanitary sewer connections, and possible soil bearing where the former river bed was located. The most recent plan approved by the City excluded the old river bed path referring to it as "Crescent park". As far as GRF, yes it is 35 years old, but there is nothing structurally wrong with it and there are precedents for making major changes to it. Personally, I would not mind seeing a new stadium on the site of the original Comiskey or at another site within Chicago, but not the 78. That's a large hole in the ground that seems like an ideal spot for Amazon or an Intermodal. The owners/developers have been pushing that site for years, but I for one, am not buying in. But anyway, go ahead and buy in if you want to. I don't care.

GRF may never see major renovations, but Area 78 is never going to happen. lmao.

If an agreement to extend the current Lease is made, a plan for a major remodeling of the existing park might be pursued. Not sure which plan would be architecturally/structurally/economically feasible, but I am sure there are plenty of ideas out there. I always thought removal of the entire 500 level would not hurt revenue much and then replacing seating capacity with upper tanks in the outfield w/Palladian arched openings on the back walls like Comiskey had. Maybe make the center field monitor a regular rectangle with metal arch or analog clock above. Anyway, I am sure there are a lot of ideas out there that would cost a lot less and be done several years before entering into a complicated deal to develop the black hole known as Area 78. I'd bet the bank that thing is never going to go.

A Bellinger signing would be incredible for the Sox.

If greed was not a factor by owners/developers and the City, I think a nice 9 hole golf course, outdoor running track, and a park with an outdoor skating rink would be the highest and best use. That would add green space and beautify the city-scape. This parcel is a no-go for any major development otherwise. Too many issues with it that have caused other proposals (including a recent very ambitious one) to fail. There must be other options for a location that are way less problematic. Why go out and look for major problems? Jerry is way too smart to get involved in that century old Area 78 nightmare.

I am always among the last to gather facts and formulate opinions.

"After the crooked river canal was filled and what is now known as the Rezko property was born, the land was used as a train yard and entry point for Grand Central until the 1970’s. When the yard was demolished, no one bothered to hook up sewer or water pipes or run electricity to the property, or even build streets or sidewalks to the lot. Located 30 feet below Roosevelt Road, the property is practically inaccessible from three sides—and, if anyone wanted to build on it, they’d first have to invest significantly in preliminary infrastructure as well as clean up all the garbage and chemicals in the soil. This is partially why Rezko failed to do anything with the land—besides having to deal instead with his money laundering and fraud convictions, of course." https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/august-2013/rezkos-lot/

I am concerned that speculation about the possibility of a new stadium is going to hurt the franchise if/when it proves to be just that, or appears to be something intended primarily for leverage with ISFA. The Sox should get on with this or make another plan in order to clarify a way forward as soon as possible. Acquire the parcel, seek pubic/private financing, obtain a few conceptual plans, address site issues. JR is the right person to make this happen, if he wants it to.

I an not a geologist or land engineer but simply am noting the history of the site. You truck in all the solid fill you want but the original river bed may compromise soil bearing. We also do not know what kind of fill was used there. Once again, even without knowing some of these answers, the fact that the parcel has not been developed since 1929 should be cause for some trepidation about this site. I would pass on it and look for other alternatives, especially closer to the lakefront by Burnham Harbor. One issue with difficult sites like this is that you just cannot accurately quantify prices until the shovels go down in the soil.

Builder who has been involved with land development, including sites in Chicago that had numerous soil issues.

There are major reasons the site has not been developed since the river was moved....in 1929. The reason this rando brought it up here because no one else did. Time and costs for developing this site would be major considerations for the Sox if they want to make a move by 2029.

The location has to be adjacent to Burnham Harbor somewhere with great views of the Lakefront if the Sox want to accomplish something like that.

Having researched the history of this parcel as a river that moved was later used as a landfill, I had simply pointed out the obvious - that there will be major costs associated with excavating, filling and underpinning buildings and flat work there. Look at some of the historic pictures of the river there. Those costs could be prohibitive given the fact that the entire site was crossed North to South by the Chicago river and then filled in with who knows what. It could take years and millions of dollars to dig out the prior landfill, truck in solid fill, and drive pylons to support a stadium, a river wall, etc. once EPA approvals have been made and architectural and engineering plans have been approved. This seems like a no-go if the idea is to replace GRF by 2029.

If I am looking at the same strip of land I wonder if perhaps that acreage would present load bearing issues at certain points and/or require removal of non-load bearing fill and/or contaminated soil. Looking at a historical map from the straightening of the Chicago river back in the 1920's (see link below) , I have to wonder how deep the old river bed was, how much muck and fill would need to be hauled away and how many piles would have to be driven in order to support structures and even flat work. The cost for extensive land engineering, excavation, fill, pylons, etc. could well be a reason why that site has remained undeveloped for decades. https://chicagology.com/harbor/straighteningriver/

I dislike the 78 site. It's a dump. All the railroad tracks converging there and the quality of the river at that point. It's awful. And really no special views of the lake or the loop that warrant moving there. Sox are sitting on a goldmine as it is as with all of the existing parking and infrastructure and with Bridgeport and Bronzeville continuing to gentrify year after year. They don't need a new stadium and if and when they do, just build on the site of the original Comiskey.